Life is unfair. Deal with it
History repeats itself and biology insists humans reproduce (or innovate). Else, death is inevitable. It is in an entrepreneur’s interest to study both themes closely
Charles Assisi
Co-founder and Director
Founding Fuel
Charles Assisi is an award-winning journalist with two decades of experience to back him. He is co-founder and director at Founding Fuel, and co-author of the book The Aadhaar Effect. He is a columnist for Hindustan Times, one of India's most influential English newspaper. He is vocal in his views on journalism and what shape it ought to take in India. He speaks on the theme at various forums and is often invited by various organizations to teach their teams how to write.
In his last assignment, he wore two hats: That of Managing Editor at Forbes India and Editor at ForbesLife India. As part of the leadership team, his mandate was to create a distinctive business title in a market many thought was saturated. When Forbes India was finally launched after much brainstorming and thinking through, it broke through the ranks and got to be recognized as the most influential business magazine in the country. He did much the same thing with ForbesLife India where he broke from convention and launched the title to critical acclaim.
Before that, he was National Technology Editor and National Business Editor at the Times of India, during the great newspaper wars of 2005. He was part of the team that ensured Times of India maintained top dog status in Mumbai on the face of assaults by DNA and Hindustan Times.
His first big gig came in his late twenties when German media house Vogel Burda marked its India debut with CHIP a wildly popular technology magazine. He was appointed Editor and given a free run to create what he wanted. During this stint, he worked and interacted with all of Vogel Burda's various newsrooms across Europe and Asia.
Charles holds a Masters in Economics from Mumbai Universtity and an MBA in Finance. Along the way he earned the Madhu Valluri Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Polestar Award for Excellence in Business Journalism.
In his spare time, he reads voraciously across the board, but is biased towards psychology and the social sciences. He dabbles in various things that catch his fancy at various points. But as fancies go, many evaporate as often as they fall on him.
My contributions
106 articles written
We’re getting de-FANGed and Uber-ed
That artificial intelligence is here to stay and is intrusive is one thing. Question is, should Homo Sapiens regulate it to survive the onslaught?
India versus Pakistan is not cricket, but war
Pointers to why reside in political theory, evolutionary biology, the emergence of artificial intelligence and our failure to see it all
Why we do what we do, and where does money come into it
Why do I go to work? Why should I go to work? Just for the money? It matters, sure. But if it were to be my ‘WHY’, I will die unhappy
The myth that is the Indian liberal
Apparently, there is a battle raging between Indian liberals and orthodox forces. Unfortunately, much like unicorns and pink fairies, the Indian liberal is a myth
The Tao of thinking
There are two ways to think. Like you would usually. Or apply models, try to think like others would, and examine the world from multiple perspectives
Two idiots and three pigs
How do generals win a war? By pacing themselves right even as they use idiots and pigs to protect their soldiers
Moderate constraints actually boost creativity. Here's why
The popular belief is creative minds work best in unstructured, open-ended environments. But some research suggests that the opposite might be true
Think and design in India. Why make in India?
In this podcast, Kiran Karnik talks about the kind of innovation India needs to leapfrog. He says Make in India is a dated idea. Instead, the focus ought to be on Think in India. The final in a three-part series
The ground beneath India’s feet
From a distance, India looks pretty. But the ground it stands on is shaky. Policies framed in Lutyens’ Delhi are distanced from Indian realities. Entrepreneurship is the victim